Collecting Books

A great starter book for those interested in political collecting. If you do not yet own the Hake books, you'll get a lot of information from this. Contains lots of info on the hobby, fakes, prices, clubs to join etc... Mark is a political button dealer and knows the hobby well. He is also a super nice guy!

I found this book of great help when I am looking for buttons to buy--It tells the reader what to look for in counterfeits and how to accurately estimate prices--good book for beginning collectors!

I've been very vocal in my support for the Comic Buyer's Guide Comic Book Checklist & Price Guide. To me it is the comic book price guide of choice over the Overstreet guide for a number of reasons. First, the CBG guide is not weighted down by literally hundreds of pages of advertisements like the Overstreet guide is. I mean, what is the point of endless pages of ads for comic dealers and shops anyway? Who buys mail order with eBay around?

Secondly, the CBG guide is not filled with dozens of pages of market reports from dealers around the country. Yes, at one time I found these market reports to be very valuable. But again, this we in the pre-eBay/Internet days. If I want to know what a certain book has been selling for, I can just search completed auctions on ebay or other auction sites. It's no longer useful to me to read what a dealer in Podunk, Idaho sold a Hulk #181 for.

Lastly, while concentrating its efforts only comics from the Silver Age to the present, the CBG guide is able to provide much more information about individual issues. True, the Overstreet Guide does go back to the Golden Age but at a cost of condensing it's information so tightly and with such a small font, it's almost unreadable. I much prefer the CBG guides where each issue of a title is listed individually, rather than as a range of issues. This allows the guide to provide more information such as notable events as origins, first appearances, and the issue's artist, as well as noting the month and year of each issue.

The CBG price guide provides only the near mint price for each issue but comes with a detailed, full color grading guide that explains how to calculate the prices for books that are less than near mint. Like the Overstreet, literally hundreds of cover pictures are included in the book's 808 pages. This is my price guide of choice. It is all meat without any of the Overstreet fat.

REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON

this book is fairly complete to about june 2007. has listings for alternate covers and fairly accurate pricings for older books. the grading guide that is inside has great color descriptive images to define different grades , with great written explanations.

I think this may well become the standard reference guide for glass collectors. Beautifully designed, accessible and I thought very comprehensive in its coverage. Starting with blown and cased glass then pressed and moulded, iridescent, enamelled, painted, stained, engraved and finally cut glass. Each of these sections is broken down into national styles, for instance, the Scandinavian section of blown and cased glass covers Kosta Boda, Orrefors, Holmegaard, Riihimaki and Karhula-Iittala. All the glass shown has a caption that includes a dimension and price guide. The back of the book includes a glossary, dealer and museum addresses and that all-important index.

A particularly interesting chapter is the last one, contemporary and studio glass. Eighty-two artists are featured with one or two examples of their work. This is beautiful fine art glass and with some items it is hard to believe that they are made out of such a brittle substance. Predictably, there is not much in this section costing less than a thousand dollars.

I think it is worth commenting on the presentation. All the pages are very cleanly designed with typographic clarity for the main text, captions, key dates and designer information. The photos (over a 1,100) are presented as cutouts and almost jump off the page, all this glass looks just stunning.

BTW. The main US publishers of collector's books should study '20th-Century Glass', this is what highly visual titles should look like!

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

A very good selection of designers and examples. I miss more elaborate explanations about the technics used in glass production. Images are in very good quality and the colors are vivid and beutifull. Very recomended for an overall study of 20th. century glass art.

Another great book from John Axe!! I wouldn't want to be without my The Secret of Collecting Girls' Series Books by John, and now he has given us another great gift in All About Collecting Boys' Series Books. This book is packed with information about some of the most poplar boys series including the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Ted Scott, and more.

Along with the information, the book is beautifully done with photographs of the various cover arts. As I stated in the Girls' Series book review, the book is worth it for the photographs alone.

A very good value for the price.

There are plenty of FULL COLOR book cover photos here to help you in collecting boys series books from the past. This includes cover variations of every Hardy Boys book published between 1927 and 1980. Tom Swift Jr., Chip Hilton, & Mark Tidd are also well represented.
There are also examples of covers from many other series, both forgotten to well known. Examples of these range from Dave Porter, to The Rover Boys, Ken Holt, Biff Brewster, Tom Quest, & Rick Brant. Complete book lists are included for 37 boys series.
I also recomend John Axe's other collecting guides!

Ellaraine Lockie has button folklore, fact and fiction all buttoned up neatly in her extremely interesting book! If you think buttons are simply something that occasionally fall off your shirt and need to be sewed back on then you are woefully lacking in button knowledge! From fantastic (a button that saved the life of a prominent figure in history) to fantastical it's all contained within the pages of this delightful book! Whether you're a button collector, button lover or just plain interested in history and curiosities this book is the best ever compiled! Highly recommended!

"All Because of a Button" is a fascinating and fun read on a subject that one might not think would be of much interest to the general reader. I am astounded by the amount of research the author must have done. Where did the author get all the background material on the history of buttons? Enjoyed the anecdotal material but especially appreciated the chapters on historical and cultural aspects of buttons. Had no idea of the significance of buttons, or had never given them a second thought. Kudos for a most unusual (I think) but informative text on a subject we all take for granted, never realizing the impact of such a small item in our daily lives, as well as its historical significance. The drawings by the author's daughter are a beautiful and priceless adjunct to the text. What a gift!

This is one of the best books written on the subject in years! It is very detailed and full of color photos of these great old toy soldiers. If you have this book and Richard O'Briens...thats all you need as a resource on the subject!

This is one of the best books written on the subject in years! It is very detailed and full of color photos of these great old toy soldiers. If you have this book and Richard O'Briens...thats all you need as a resource on the subject!

This review is written from the perspective of the amateur collector on a limited budget. It has been said that collecting ancient coins was the "hobby of Kings". It might also be said that reference books on this subject can only be afforded by Kings, and are certainly less affordable than the coins. Not so with the readable series by Wayne Salyes, past editor of the premier journal on ancient coins, The Celetor. Number five (better to write V) in the series focuses on coins minted by the Roman empire during its long slide into oblivian. Constantinople also called Byzantium, and now called Istanbul, was the capital of the Empire and the center of Christianity from its founding by Constantine the Great in the 4th century to its final demise in the 15th century when the city fell to Mehmet the (Turkish) Conquerer in 1453. Most of us think of Rome as the capital of the Roman Empire but the Eastern half of the empire, while not so glorius, lived a 1000 years longer. Coinage usually reflects the culture, and this is clearly illustrated in Sayles' presentation. It is filled with numerous figures of coins, maps, and geniology. While all of his volumes are usually regarded as "introductory" and for the "new collector" to distinguish them from the comprehensive catalogues used to attribute coins, this particular volume has been particularly useful to me as an affordable attribution reference. It is fascinating to see how the coinage changed from images of emperor and soldiers to images of Christ and crosses. This is a superb addition to the series, fills a gap in the literature, and whets my appitite for volume VI.

Wayne Sayles has created a masterpiece with his "Ancient Coin Collecting V - The Romaion/Byzantine Culture." This book is a great resource, it introduces all of the main themes in Byzantine coinage and directs the reader where to look to find out more.

This book goes at length to describe the denomination of Byzantine coins, the meanings of the markings, and has an article for each emperors and claimants to the throne, from 491-1453. At least every page has at least one black and white photo, many genealogies, excellent bibliographies and much more.

This is an excellent resource for anyone interested in Byzantine coins. This book is also offers are remarkably lucid description of the narrative of Byzantine history. Highly recommended.

I collect and sell vintage Disney animation art, and this book is a great resource for seeing what pieces have sold for what, and for helping to determine what pieces have been available.

Mr. Lotmans book is an essential for anyone thinking of buying vintage animation art. Clearly this is one tool that you should have at your side when purchasing at auction or doing provenance work of any kind. Very informative with tonnes of great photographs, this book chronicles auction results from all the major houses over the last decade. Do not get caught without one!!!! P.S. Watch for the next ecition in the series to be published soon. Good Collecting

Great Book, fabulous photos. I recommend it to anyone with a love of Gorgeous Enamel Jewelry

This book was a pleasant surprise. I expected the dry recitation of facts and adequate photography of the average collector's book, but that's not what I got. The narrative is fun, with much of the primary author's personality shining through, and the photography is lovely.

The book is beautifully designed. Literary quotes about jewelry and a sense of a personal connection with the authors enhance the text. I found myself reading the entire book instead of just looking up the parts I wanted to know about. The information is thorough and detailed.

Since this is the first text on antique enamel, one would expect it to do well among collectors, but this exceeds those expectations and will be an asset to anyone in the antique business.

I would recommend these pans to everyone. Get away from the unhealthy non stick surfaces of other pans. These pans disburse the heat so evenly. Clean up is a breeze.Cuisinart Chef's Classic Stainless-Steel 10-Piece Cookware Set

This is Dale Seymour's second book on the subject, Antique Poker Chips. Although it is soft covered like the first book that is about the only similarity. This book is nearly twice the size at 442 pages. The examples of chips is greatly expanded as is the catalog section. There are a number of color pages and the Seymour " coding" system has been modified. If the first book was a, "must have", and it was you can't live without this book.

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